Dream like Caleb and hold onto promises from the Lord

Watching a 99-year-old woman fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming a knife thrower’s assistant reminded me of Caleb and his unshakeable faith, says Gordon Allan, Senior Leader at Edinburgh Elim Church

Gordon Allan is Senior Leader
at Edinburgh Elim Church

I’ve never seen the ‘point’ of a knife-throwing circus act (pun intended!) and becoming the other half of that double act has never been the target of my hopes and dreams!

So the BBC News app in May this year grabbed my attention when 99-year-old Annie Duplock achieved her ‘lifelong dream’ of becoming a knife thrower’s assistant. Apparently, she had wanted to do this for 30 years and was desperate to fulfil this long-held dream!

Annie’s story reminded me of a ‘youthful’ Caleb in the Old Testament who held the dream of his promised inheritance for over 40 years. Imagine having the passion, drive and tenacity to maintain his statement, “We should go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it,” when almost all the others said, “No thanks, too scary, too hard, too difficult,” (Numbers 13:30). Despite being shouted down by his contemporaries in the moment and having endured the consequences of his nation’s lack of faith, Caleb kept the fire burning within.

As an 85-year-old ‘serving the Lord wholeheartedly’ (Joshua 14:8) he led the charge to take the high ground, his promised high ground. He held onto his lifelong dream, his promise from the Lord.

I am taken by his statement that ‘the Lord helping me, I will drive them out, just as he said,’ (v12). To me that is past faith, present faith and prospective faith in operation! Caleb believed what God had said in the past; he had continuing faith to act in the present; and had future faith that with God’s help he was going to inhabit his inheritance on an ongoing basis.

Caleb was ‘all in’ as God’s man in his generation(s). He had settled the issue in his mind; God was greater and stronger than the opposition. He had settled the issue in his lifestyle; serving ‘wholeheartedly’ meant being committed and consecrated to God’s ways down through the years and in every circumstance. He had settled the issue through his actions: “Now give me the hill country that the Lord promised me that day,” (v12). Caleb did something about what was stopping him possessing the land. It was so important he would battle for it. What has God promised you, have you inherited that promise, are you ‘all in’ when it comes to the things of God? What are you doing about your God-given lifelong dream? Don’t settle for being drowned out by others, don’t settle for deserts, don’t settle for deferred hope. Possess his promise to you, that’s the point!
 

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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